Consumer acceptance of laundry products is determined not only by the performance achieved with these products but the aesthetics associated therewith. The perfume systems are therefore an important aspect of the successful formulation of such commercial products.
What perfume system to use for a given product is a matter of careful consideration by skilled perfumers. While a wide array of chemicals and ingredients are available to perfumers, considerations such as availability, cost, and compatibility with other components in the compositions limit the practical options. Thus, there continues to be a need for low-cost, compatible perfume materials useful for laundry compositions.
Furthermore, due to the high energy input and large air flow in the drying process used in the typical automatic laundry dryers, a large part of many perfumes would be lost from the dryer vent. Perfume can be lost even when the fabrics are line dried. It is desirable to formulate efficient, enduring fabric softener perfume compositions that remain on fabric for aesthetic benefit, and are not lost, or wasted, without benefiting the laundered items.
The present invention provides improved compositions using a combination of softener and efficient perfumes in dryer-activated fabric softening compositions while, surprisingly, also providing improved longevity of perfumes on the laundered clothes, by utilizing enduring perfume compositions.
It has been discovered that esters of perfume alcohols are particularly well suited for fabric softening compositions. In particular, it has been discovered that esters of perfume alcohols wherein the ester has at least one free carboxylate group will hydrolze on a fabric substrate to give an alcohol perfume. In addition, slowly hydrolyzable esters of perfume alcohols provide release of the perfume over a longer period of time than by the use of the perfume itself in the fabric softening compositions. Such materials therefore provide perfumers with more options for perfume ingredients and more flexibility in formulation considerations. These and other advantages of the present invention will be seen from the disclosures hereinafter.